Tahanto’s no-name policy affirmed

Friday

Feb 1, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Ken Cleveland ITEM CORRESPONDENT

Before approving a revised naming policy, the Berlin Boylston Regional School Committee took final action on a long-standing request, unanimously approving a motion to confirm a March 2011 vote to not name a part of the new school as a memorial.

The request by a citizen’s petition to name the gym in the new Tahanto Regional Middle/High School had generated an ongoing debate.

The board has been working on the policy, seeking to expand and clarify details, but in previous meetings generally agreed that the committee did not want to open the door to naming.

Berlin member Chris Keefe said the decision in 2011 “was not an official vote of the committee at that time.”

“It was a consensus that the board agreed on the policy,” Chairman Rebecca Dono Healy, of Boylston, said.

“We need to update the policy but not to make a decision on this request,” Keefe said.

Healy said it was necessary to set the policy so the administration can act consistently.

Boylston member Larry Brenner said he felt uncomfortable making a decision on something that occurred two years ago, but added “I feel very uncomfortable naming any portion of our school after a particularly tragic event because the school is the place our children have to walk through.”

Superintendent of Schools Nadine Ekstrom said she had explained the rationale to those proposing naming the new gym after Tahanto alum Jay Corcoran, who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

She referred to “the work that has been done and the thought that has gone through this process,” and said the school was “an educational facility that is a positive learning environment.” She said it should not be “a constant reminder of something negative.”

She noted two other naming requests had been denied and three other requests received.

Ekstrom said a sign or plaque would be an option. Many memorial plaques were moved from the old building to be reinstalled.

“There are other options out there,” Ekstrom said, including donations where there is a need. She noted trees planted in front of the old school building for Sept. 11 and Columbine.

“A scholarship to college would be a living memorial,” Berlin member Ruth Blandin said, especially if a committee then chooses a person who exemplifies Corcoran.

Ekstrom said a scholarship had been given out in memory of Corcoran but she was not sure what had happened to that.

“It gives you the opportunity to understand who he was as a person,” Blandin said of the scholarship option.

After Corcoran’s death, his classmates formed a scholarship in his name, with recipients expected to show those traits of academic success and athletic achievement that Corcoran displayed in high school.

In 2011, classmate Siobhan Bohnson said she would like to restart the Tahanto scholarship, which has not been awarded in recent years.

In approving a revised policy, the committee discussed wording including clarifying that it applied to portions of the facility rather than the whole school.

It also added language applying to signage, similar to what is in most of the dozens of policies in other districts, Healy said.

That could add uniformity to signs, which could be approved by the administration.

Healy noted the subcommittee, which consisted of her and Keefe, did not agree on allowing naming rights for donors, a provision Healy had sought.

The expanded policy was approved unanimously.

In other business

•Ekstrom detailed some of the major budget points as the board gets into preparing the budget for next year.

Major points include increases related to the shift of positions from elementary to middle school because of the sixth grades from both towns moving to the new school.

•Principal Diane Tucceri said traffic patterns had become a problem when preschool release and early release for mid-terms coincided. She said in the future those would be staggered to prevent the backup onto the road of cars waiting to pick up students.